Okay, here we are! Chapter Seven. I was waiting on Courtney to review the past one, but she's about as slow as Dominique is obvious. (: I was impatient to post this. And I give you, HOLDEN WOOD! /swoon.

Meet Holden Wood, the teen dream of Hogwarts? Dominique's life is about to get a whole lot more interesting...
made by toxicity @ TDA!

All proper young ladies must remember that eavesdropping is inappropriate no matter the circumstances.

“Dom, do we have to go over this again?” Lily complains. She is waving her wand around her head like crazy, muttering “Accio cloak!” repetitiously and causing general chaos through her entire dorm room. Cloaks from all of her roommates’ trunks are flying in her direction and drawers are shooting open, but apparently, none of them are the one for which she is searching. “I swear, we aren’t going to get caught.”

I sigh. I haven’t said anything since she drug me up to her second-year dorm, which is thankfully empty of her four other roommates. All I’ve done for the past fifteen minutes is sigh, repeatedly. Usually, Rose is the paranoid member of the family. Not me. No, I’m the crazy, reckless, devil-may-care one. “Are you sure?” I ask her. I find the concept of eavesdropping on the three boys in their dorm room intriguing, but if one of them catches us, I’ll be forever mortified.

Lily pockets her wand, giving up on magic. “Of course I’m sure,” she says. She drops to her knees and throws up the lid of her gorgeous golden leather trunk. She rifles through the remaining stacks of jumpers and jeans until she finally finds a tissue paper-wrapped package beneath everything in her trunk. “There you are!” she coos excitedly to the package.

Suddenly, I start to regret my decision to eavesdrop with my twelve-year-old cousin. I don’t think she’s mentally stable. Of course, that’s rather hypocritical of me. I’m not mentally stable either. Neither are either of Lily’s older brothers. I guess she really doesn’t have a chance. Poor girl.

“Erm, Lily…” I begin. I consider asking her about the package, but then I think better of it. I’ll probably make it sound like an insult, and I can’t really insult my only ally. “How are you so sure we won’t get caught?”

My cousin looks up from the package as her tiny, white hands unwrap it. She smiles mischievously as the tissue paper falls away, revealing an old tattered cloak. I stare at it. It doesn’t look like anything special, especially nothing that will help us in eavesdropping on the boys without being caught. She shakes the cloak out in front of her, and then pulls it around her shoulders to demonstrate. “This is how I’m sure,” she informs me matter-of-factly. In a split second, Lily’s body disappears beneath the cloak.

I gasp- which is definitely out of character for me, let me tell you. “Lily Luna Potter!” I scold her. Maybe James and I have corrupted her even more than we thought we had. “Where the fuck did you get an Invisibility Cloak!?”

Lily smirks at me. If she were to have black hair, she would look like James’ twin sister. “Daddy, of course. Haven’t you heard the stories, Dom?”

Of course, I’ve heard the stories. Everyone has heard the stories of Harry Potter and his Invisibility Cloak, one of the three Deathly Hallows written about in The Tales of Beadle the Bard. Realizing that the cloak Lily is holding is so obviously his, I feel a little stupid. Even though I have no idea why she has it. Out of his three children, why did Harry Potter chose to give his incredibly valuable Invisibility Cloak to his youngest child and only daughter? I take a step towards Lily, who pulls the cloak away from her to leave me space underneath.

She smirks again. Ah. He didn’t give it to her. Lily stole it. Nice.

Quickly and awkwardly, Lily covers our heads with the cloak, and we exit her dormitory. We stumble gawkily down the staircase towards the boys’ side of the Gryffindor Tower. I have a good thirty centimeters on Lily, and that makes it incredibly challenging to hide the both of us underneath the cloak. I repetitively glance down at my feet, to make sure they’re covered as we walk towards the boys’ staircase. Luckily for Lily and I, the boys’ staircase does not possess the same charm as the girls’, letting us ascend without it transforming into a slide and shooting us back to the ground floor. Finally, despite the difficulties, we make it to the door outside of the fifth year boys’ dormitory, and Lily pulls out her set of Extendable Ears from her pocket. Following suit, I retrieve mine too. W press the end of the device to the door, insert the ear pieces, and fall into silence, leaning up against the wall next to the door.

“- really was brilliant magic, Potter,” I hear Lorcan say. His voice seems normal again. I cringe. So his change in personality is my fault? I hate when James and Fred know what they’re talking about.

The response is obviously James, although it’s rather muffled. It sounds almost as if his face is buried in a pillow. “It was all Nicky’s planning,” he replies. Or, at least, I think that’s what he says. It’s really quite muffled.

“She’s really fantastic when it comes to pranks. Well- she’s bloody fantastic all the time. I don’t know what we’d do without her,” Fred agrees. His voice is the most clear, and I recall that his bed is closest to the door while James’ is the farthest away. Lorcan’s bed and the two beds belonging to their other two roommates, Holden Wood and Madden Gallagher, are in between the two.

“It could’ve been even better with your help,” James adds.

I grimace. James is such a little git sometimes. Of course, he has no idea I’m eavesdropping, so he won’t know he offended me by saying that. Nevertheless, it’s still offensive. As if I’m not good enough for their pranks.

Lily laughs softly at me. “He’s just trying to get something out of Lorcan about why he avoided you so much today. I can tell. I know my brother.” She winks one brown eye at me, and I feel strangely assured. It’s odd to trust my twelve year old cousin so much.

“- didn’t really want to spend dinner ’round her after what I overheard, made,” Lorcan is saying. “You understand, surely.”

There’s a low creak that implies a nervous shift in the boys’ dormitory. Lily furrows her brow, not quite understanding what Lorcan is trying to get across. She never avoids people when they say something to upset her; Lily is the one who bluntly confronts, and then annihilates, anyone who upsets her. She learned that from me. She doesn’t quite comprehend why other people can’t handle these situations like both of us do. She’ll get it when she’s older. I understand completely what Lorcan’s problem is, as much as it bothers me sometimes. He’s one of those people that hates bringing up his own emotions, especially when he’s hurt. He’ll rather further hurt himself than tell someone else they upset him. James obviously understands too, as a boyish prat who pretends like he’s completely invincible, since he’s the next one to speak.

“Erm, about that, mate,” James says rather awkwardly. “Dommie was lying.”

“What!?” I snap quietly. James has no idea that I’m lying- not for sure, anyway. Of course, he has a good idea, from my little show at the Burrow last night, but he shouldn’t be making assumptions like that. He’ll only make himself into an even bigger arsehole. If that’s possible.

Lily laughs again. “I told you,” she teases. “We all have known for ages that you fancy him. Without any confirmation from you.”

I shush her rudely, tuning back into the boys’ conversation. I’m getting tired of missing things because of Lily. Even though I love her to pieces for the eavesdropping idea.

“- lying? How do you know?” Lorcan asks.

“She’s our best mate, Scamander,” Fred answers. “We can read Dom like a bloody book.” I stomp my foot in irritation. They cannot read me like a bloody book! Lily rolls her eyes. “She fancies you, and it’s ’bout time we get her to admit it.”

James laughs in agreement. I glower at my feet. “And we do this by getting you to finally admit to it, too.”

“Admit what, Potter?”

“Well, that you fancy her too.”

I crane my neck towards the door, desperate to catch Lorcan’s response. If I miss his response, I might just try to kill myself. Is it possible to Avada Kedavra yourself? Merlin’s beard, I hope so. Just in case Lily starts giggling or the Extendable Ears stop functioning properly. I cannot miss what Lorcan says in reply to James. A few minutes pass by in silence. Lily looks impatient, and I suppose I look devastated. No response implies a no, doesn’t it? Unless they’re doing some sort of weird boy sign language thing. I wish I could see inside their room instead of just hearing.

“Erm, what are you doing outside my dormitory?” someone asks in a vaguely Scottish accent.

I glance down at our feet. Oh, damn. No wonder we’ve been having so much trouble with this damn cloak. It isn’t long enough for us. Bloody long legs. I wonder how many people saw us and now think Lily and I have completely lost our minds- which is a totally incorrect assumption, as we haven’t just recently lost our minds; they’ve been gone quite a while, especially mine.

“So, you were eavesdropping on Scamander?” Wood asks, smoothing down his short brown hair. Oh, right. I forgot. Wood is one of those people that seems to know everything without being told. He makes as many assumptions as my bloody cousins, but his have a higher chance of being correct.

Lily decides that now is the perfect time for her to disappear. She pulls the cloak back over her head, her feet completely covered, and I assume she’s returning to her dormitory. I really hope she is.

I look away from Wood while he repeats his question. “Might’ve been,” I answer finally. Wood is a prefect. He can give me detention for finding me in the boys’ dormitories if he wants to. Another detention. Oh, fuck.

“He does fancy you,” Wood says bluntly. He has one of those really masculine voices, one that’s low enough to give girls gooseflesh all over their bodies. Along with his fantastic good looks, his voice makes Gryffindor girls go absolutely nutty over him. Except for me, of course. I prefer Lorcan to him.

I look up at him now. His golden brown eyes sparkle sincerely in the low light outside the fifth year dormitory. Okay, his eyes are almost neck-in-neck with Lorcan’s.

“He told us one day a year ago. I’m sure it hasn’t changed. Boys like Lorcan don’t change their minds too quickly.”

I shrug. “Any hope of confirming that is gone now. The boys asked him about me just as you came up here and discovered us. Thanks for that, by the way,” I inform him, my voice dripping with sarcasm and aggravation. I’m highly capable of being irritated with the stunning Holden Wood. Obviously.

“He still fancies you,” Wood takes one step towards me.

Erm. Awkward situation much? I lean back against the wall. I hate when people get so close to me. I hate closeness in general. I may be claustrophobic. “Am I going to get detention for this?” I ask timidly, even though it sounds rather lame. Anything to get him to take a step away from me. I really don’t like this proximity. It’s bothering me. I mean, he’s close enough to kiss me… and how awkward would that be?

Wood outright laughs at me. “Of course not, Miss Weasley. Can’t give detentions to pretty little things like you,” he teases, grinning at me now. I must admit, he’s quite handsome and incredibly charming. Even though his lines are typical and clichéd. I prefer Lorcan, but Wood is quite nice to look at. Quite…

“I’ll sit here with you while you’re eavesdropping, if you’d like,” Wood suggests when I don’t respond to his blatant flirtation. He’s still grinning, and his eyes are full of mirth. “It’s much less suspicious than two pairs of bodiless feet, eh?”

I shake my head, and he leans forward towards me again. We’re only a few centimeters away now, even though the top of my head only reaches his nose. He smells like freshly cut grass, almost like a Quidditch pitch. I find myself accidentally taking a deep breath in. “N-n-no,” I stammer. “That’s okay, Wood.”

Awkward situations are apparently magnetized to me.

“Really?” Wood says, looking a bit put out. He frowns ever so slightly. Half the girls at Hogwarts would kill me if they saw the slightly wounded look on his face. Of course, the second most beloved fifth year Hogwarts student, under my own cousin, is flirting with me, and I’m rejecting him. This is true affection. I wish Lorcan could witness this. “Are you sure?”

I nod my head, and my strawberry blonde curls bounce on my shoulders, even a few seconds after I finish nodding. I wish my hair was straight. I really do. My curls are like springs. Really obnoxious springs. “That’s quite alright, Wood. But thank you.”

Apparently, Wood didn’t take my reply as the answer to his question. It isn’t the one he desired, obviously. How odd is this. He decides to take matters into his own hands, dips his head quickly, and presses his lips against mine.

Well, that’s a bit of a surprise.

Even more of a surprise is the way I allow myself to melt against him. I should resist. I really should. I should shove him away right now and curse him for kissing me. But this is Holden Wood. One of the very few Hogwarts dream boys. Every girl in my year fancies him, and here he is, kissing me. No girl even close to being in her right mind would push Holden Wood away from her, especially when the boy she truly fancies is upset with her and she will never know if he returns the feelings.

I let him knot his fingers, which aren’t calloused and rough from Quidditch like James and Fred’s are, in my short curls, and I let his other hand rest on the bare sliver of skin between my jeans and thin tank top. I stand in front of him rather awkwardly as he kisses me and as his hands hold me in place, my own arms hanging along my sides and most of my body completely unaware of what’s happening. His lips move against mine strangely, but not uncomfortably. It’s in no way comparable to my first kiss, the one I shared with Lorcan, but in its own way, it’s rather incredible. Holden Wood is, who would’ve guessed, a very satisfactory kisser.

“Who’s out he- oh, fuck.”

Okay: here's the challenge for this one. What do you think of Holden Wood, and would you rather Dominique be with him or Lorcan?